Hi
Let me start by thanking Debbie for her donation of a camera to the hospital,
Again we need still need a laptop for the local representative as you know he is time traveling and some time it reach a place where is no cyber cafe and since he have a mobile morderm he is lacking a laptop to be connected at all time wherever he is.
and because of this we are requesting for any volunteer that has an extra laptop to donate to the hospital.
looking forward to see any one's word
Best wishes
Bram

A few more updates on things not already posted elsewhere:

1. Kitchen Table Charities Trust Proposal-I have checked on the status of this proposal twice since we submitted it. The first time, I received confirmation that they had the paper copies of the forms required. I was told the board would be meeting in mid-late February to review all of the proposals submitted and make decisions about funding. I was not provided with a specific date, so it is possible that meeting still has not occured. A few days ago, I sent another message to inquire about the status again and to date, I have not received a response back yet. Mary and I both became a little bit concerned when their website disappeared, especially in light of the current economic climate, however, they now have an "under construction" up in it's place, so apparently they are redoing their website. At this point, we are still waiting on an answer regarding funding.

2. African Diaspora Medical Project-I have also checked on the status of this proposal twice. I have received no word from them at all, not even a confirmation of receipt of the proposal, so I am not hopeful about this one.

3. Alison messaged me recently about meeting a woman affliated with Aid to Hospital's Worldwide (http://www.a2hw.org.uk/12301.html) in the UK. I have emailed her the list of the hospital's most needed equipment so that she can inquire further about shipping. The container cost may be prohibitive as they have been for other options we've investigated in the past, but Alison is truly a master negotiator so we felt it was definitely worth exploring further.

4. Bramuel told me today that the land that was donated by the local community to the hospital to build on is at risk for being taken back by the community and used for other things if the hospital cannot begin building this year. Obviously, this is a huge concern due to the substantial cost of building and potential to lose the land. Bramuel intends on meeting with Stephen from the Matopeni village to discuss how he was able to fund the building of his school. We spent a lot of time this morning talking about mobilization of local resources rather than relying solely on outside funding. The local community already donates a substantial amount of money each month to keep Arrow Web Hospital going and cover the rent charges, so Bramuel was not sure how this would be possible. I suggested that we explore some of the different organizations working in or around Nairobi for him to contact as a possible means of assistance. Bramuel also recently met a worker from USAID at a conference and this person encouraged him to apply for assistance. We talked about how competitive funding is through this organization and whether or not it would be worth the time to submit a request. I am not convinced that it would be and think they will be much better off working with local organizations, but it will need to be explored further.

Bramuel-here is one example that might be worth looking into:

http://www.ke.emb-japan.go.jp/ggp.htm

Kind Regards-

Jennifer

Hi Jennifer

Thanks for you updates
It was not that we said that only the local resources can build the hospital, but it was my prayer that if we can both join together for both international and local communities to fund this project will succeed.
Jennifer i think you, you are looking at the cost of the project but not looking at how many people out there can be willing to join the fundraising team or can be able to donate even one bag of cement to the hospital.

I think it will be good for us to look at the important of the project done than looking at the expensive way because looking back in my exprience from the beggining of this project we have come along way and this way by local people.now that we are on the avery costly project in our hably heart we are requesting any assistance from now both local and international communities come in of helping the local community build the hospital at its first round and i know this way is only way that will be in a very high apprecietion to the community of kayole soweto.
It will be avery unfortunatly if this is left to the local people only as we are looking a head of changing the lives of this community of kayole soweto.
Let me take you back that this land we are talking about was donated to the hospital soon as the project takes off in 2005, and if there was local resources to build the hospital then it could have no reason to ask international funds and this is why it hard taken this long to get started.
Now let us not just think things can be done locally without support from other internationals, already the local contrubution has proved that it can not build the hospital without support.

Jannifer I think i email you the budget of the hospital building matriels can you post the budget here so that we can have neighbours input and see where we are heading to.

Usaid: not that i made the usaid staff in a conference but we were in Usaid conference.Hope its clear now.
looking forward to hear more from you
Best wishes
Bram

Hi Jennifer and Bram

I am wondering if, when you talk about 'local', you are both talking about slightly different things, and this is causing confusion

Bram, I think you are talking about the money you have raised from the local community - the people who live and work in Kayole, who use the hospital?

Jennifer, I think you are talking about organisations that fund projects in Kenya, who have offices there, and who may be able to assist the hospital? These may be international or national NGOs, foreign embassies, local Kenyan or international companies with Corporate Social Responsibility programmes, government departments, religious groups etc.

.

Bram, up to now you have done an amazing job of raising money in the local community to start the hospital and keep it running to a good basic standard.

Now you want some additional equipment, to expand the services you can offer, maybe even construct your own building so that you don't have to rent. The community are not able to do all this themselves because of the costs involved, so you are looking for some outside funding.

In some cases it is possible to find information about organisations and their application procedures on the internet. This is usually true for groups based in e.g. America or Europe who provide grants to projects in developing countries, but do not have offices in those countries. Examples are Friends Of Kenya and Kitchen Tahle Charities Trust. We can continue to look, and consider putting in applications if the hospital's needs match their funding criteria.

But in many other cases detailed information is not put online but is available within Kenya, by making direct contact with the organisation involved, many of who will have offices in Nairobi. This is, I think, what Jennifer is suggesting to you.

There are many ways of finding out about them including:

* Talk to other local community organisations, find out where they have got funding from. Think about whether you may be able to get funding from the same place.

* Keep an eye on the local media (radio, TV, newspapers etc) - you will hear about projects that have been funded and where they money came from.

* Many foreign embassies run small grants schemes like the Japanese one that Jennifer has already mentioned. From experience, most do not put detailed info on their websites, and don't respond to enquiries from outside the country, but will respond to local enquiries.

* If you know of an organisations that is funding projects in your area, but cannot find contact details, we may be able to find them from the internet - its often possible to find details of country offices, even if there is no information about application procedures.

* Join local/international networks - many will offer free membership. Many of these will keep members informed of funding opportunities.

* Create some publicity within Kenya (and maybe internationally too) - can you get the hospital featured in local media, not just saying 'we need money', but describing what you do and what you hope to do in the future. Its possible that people may then approach you offering help.

Once you have the contact information, you can call/email their offices and ask for more information, ask for an appointment to go and talk to someone, see if they would be interested in visiting the hospital to learn more about what you do.

Before doing this, you need to be very well prepared, have information about what you intend to do, what it will cost, what the long-term benefits will be.

So, its all about getting to know what is happening in your area, who does what, and following up on that. Success is not guaranteed (it never is!), but the more different options you try, the more likely you are to succeed.

Mary

Yes Mary, that is exactly what I am referring to.

Bramuel, as I stated in my last email to you earlier today, and as I tried to explain in our chat yesterday, I am NOT referring to the local community members who pay the hospital rent month to month. As you will see at the end of my post, I linked to the Japanese Embassy. The story I sent you about the hospital being built in Rwanda via email as well talks about the local effort in combination with international support (http://bachersblog.com/).

I spent most of the day yesterday researching different resources to help you and reading stories so you can learn from the experience of others.

Jennifer

The rest of the medical supplies have arrived in Nairobi. Unfortunately, Bramuel is having difficulty getting them to agree to release the boxes to him, despite the fact that he provided the exact same documentation last week for the first two and they handed those over just fine. For more information about what is happening, please refer to Alison's blog:

http://avifvolunteers.blogspot.com/2009/02/corruption-or-bureaucracy.htm...

If anyone has a specific person we might contact for assistance with getting these released, please let us know as soon as possible.

Thank you!

Jennifer

I am SO excited to report that we heard back from Kitchen Table Charities Trust this evening in response to the proposal we submitted several weeks ago. They have ACCEPTED our proposal and have agreed to provides the funds requested to purchase the lab equipment!!

This equipment will allow the hospital to request inspection of the improvements to the facility for the next higher level of NHIF accreditation. The best part about this is that it will also allow them to begin accepting referrals from other facilities.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped us work on that proposal! We would not have been successful without your work and watchful editing eyes. It's a happy day!! :)

Hi Jennifer

This is great news i did not know this
am so happy that will move to the next level
great job
Bram

Hi Bram and Jennifer

That is wonderful news :)

Mary

Wow! Jennifer - congrats to you and all those who helped with your proposal and successful acceptance! Do they work only with hospitals, or can we apply for Kyomya's health center, which is quite desperately in need of equipment and supplies? Thanks - you're the best!

--
Ginger :)

Hi Ginger

Their website is http://www.kitchentablecharities.org/what.htm and they will consider applications for a wide range of projects.

Mary

Hi All
I am happy to report to you that we have received the 9 boxws that sent from one of our volunteers from UK

after one week strangle with Kenya Revenue authority KRA we managed to have the boxes realized with no extra pay.
we only payed kenya airways storange.
this thanks goes to all who paticipated on this donation of medical supplies.
on behalf of the board of management staff and the community in ladge we stand by thank you all and most in all Alison who tried at her best to make sure the donation reaches the ARROW WEB HOSPITAL.great job Alison and thnak you.
Here i have posted the photos so that all of you can see what was donated to the hospital and what is happening here on the ground.
hopping the best to all of you
Best wishes
Bram

As always, my total pleasure!
Fantastic to see the photos, thanks so much, Bram.
Here's my article :
http://avifvolunteers.blogspot.com/2009/03/tt-medical-supplies-reach-arr...

Hi everyone-just wanted to give you two quick updates:

1. The visit with the Japanese Embassy went well. One of the Embassy officers plans to come to the hospital next week for a site visit and will advise more at that point.

2. Bramuel notified me today that the money from Kitchen Table Charities Trust has safely arrived in the hospital bank account, so now they will be able to move forward with purchase and installation of the new equipment.

All the best-

Jennifer

Thanks to Kitchen Table Charities Trust, Bramuel was able to go out yesterday and purchase 3 pieces of medical laboratory equipment for Arrow Web Hospital; a hematology analyzer, a bacteriological incubator, and a Biochemistry Colorimeter. He is working on getting it all set up now.

He has contacted NHIF and requested that they send an official out to the hospital for their next accreditation inspection. This will take place on 3/19/09.

We also heard from Friends of Kenya today. They wanted to let us know that one of their members is coming to Kenya next month and would like to pay a visit to the hospital.

Things are moving along nicely! We hope to have a positive update about the visit from the Japenese Embassy official very soon as well.

Have a great weekend!

Jennifer